Even desert plants known for their resilience are burning and dying in the heat
As climate change brings more severe heat, it is testing iconic desert plants known to thrive in harsh environments, including saguaro cacti and agave.
LAS VEGAS — On a sun-parched stretch of West Charleston Boulevard, Norm Schilling pulled his truck over to the side of the road just to visit his favorite tree.
Schilling, a local horticulturalist who runs a landscaping company and owns a garden shop called Mojave Bloom Nursery, saved this African sumac decades ago after an unusually frosty winter caused its branches to freeze and die off. With careful pruning, the tree pulled through, but this summer, it’s facing a new danger: months of oppressive heat that have dried out branches and caused dieback in clusters of its drooping foliage.
It’s a seemingly counterintuitive problem. The Southwest is no stranger to sweltering conditions, and desert plants and trees are drought-resistant and heat-tolerant. Arid, harsh environments are where they thrive.
But as climate change makes heat waves more frequent, intense and long-lasting, experts say the increasingly severe conditions are testing some iconic desert plants known for their resilience — including saguaro cacti and agave.
“We saw damage to plants this summer that had never showed heat stress before,” Schilling said.
Rating: 5